Across America, Starting with the Boxing Champion

 Chapter 56 Fourth Round

 The competition has reached the fourth round, five out of four, and only one person will be eliminated in this round.

 Link VS Haitian boxer Calvin Pieters;

 Lorenzo Aragon VS Douglas Silva of Jamaica.

Mexican team Fernando Vargas VS Venezuelan boxer ‘Alvar Henriquez’.

Alva is the number one in the Venezuelan boxing team. He was defeated by Aragon in the second round. He later won five challenges in a row and defeated five opponents, including Andre Berto, and qualified for the top three. His strength very good.

 It is said that if he had not met Aragorn, he would have advanced in the second round and there would be no need to participate in the challenge at all.

 The first game of the fourth round is Aragon VS Jamaica’s Silva.

 Both of them are black. Silva's skin color is darker and his body is very strong. However, after meeting Aragon in the boxing ring, he was completely at a disadvantage.

Although Aragorn looks very proud, he is indeed very powerful. His arms are long and powerful, and his attacks are continuous. He often seizes opportunities to score several points on his opponent.

He is also very good at fighting guerrilla warfare. His steps are always changing, and he often surrounds his opponents and stuns them.

Another point is that he also has a lot of physical strength. He fought for three rounds, twirled around on the stage, and threw more than 400 punches without breaking a lot of sweat.

 Comparatively speaking, Link sweated a bit more in the first three games.

"how do you feel?"

 Coach Ed asked.

  “Very powerful.”

Link nodded.

Coach Ed frowned. Aragorn's strength was no worse than Link's. If Link was willing to score, he would still have a chance to win, but it would be almost impossible to KO Aragorn.

 It's just that Link is a little stubborn about his goal, so persuading him is of no use.

 “Don’t worry Ed, I can KO him.”

 “How to KO?”

 “Hit hard!”

 At the end of the game on the stage, the referee pulled Aragon and Douglas Silva to stand in the middle of the ring, facing the referee's seat.

 Olympic competitions use computer scoring, and referees will score based on the number of times a boxer hits his opponent.

During the competition, the boxer uses the peak of any fist (the peak of the glove has different colors, mostly white) without any barrier to directly hit the opponent's head, waist and above. The front or side of the object counts as 1 point.

 In the close-range continuous sparring between the two players, points will be awarded to the player with the greater advantage based on the degree of advantage the two players have during the fight. The player with the greater advantage will get 1 point.

 Knocking the opponent to the ground during the game counts as 1 point each time.

 The referee will give the score quickly after the boxer hits his opponent.

 If three or more of the five judges press the button at the same time, it will be counted as 1 point. If there are less than three people, the computer score will not be increased.

  The final score between the two was 32:14, and Aragon defeated his opponent by a big score. This was the fourth time in four rounds that Aragon scored more than 30 points, which is quite impressive.

 “Link, can you do it?”

Andre Berto asked.

Link thought for a while and it should be possible, but it would be extremely difficult to control the score to more than 30 points in every game.

Because the qualifying round is too short and the opponent is too powerful, if you want to hit the opponent's effective parts accurately and powerfully more than 30 times in four rounds, the difficulty is not much lower than KO.

  —

 The second game, Mexican team Fernando Vargas VS Venezuelan boxer ‘Alvar Henriquez’.

 The two sides competed for four rounds. In the end, Alvar Henriquez defeated the Mexican team's number one Fernando Vargas 24:21 and successfully completed the counterattack.

 Aroused a lot of admiration at the scene.

 Alva was eliminated in the second round, and then played five consecutive challenge matches, all of which were successful. He also successfully counterattacked Mexico's Fernando in 5-3. He was very powerful.

Through this counterattack, Alvar Henriquez once surpassed Link and Aragorn and became the biggest highlight in this Olympic qualifying tournament.

The third game is Link against Haitian boxer Calvin Peters, 23 years old, black, nicknamed 'The Rock', height 182cm, arm length 183cm, amateur competition record of 44 fights, 43 wins and 1 loss, the only defeat was last year Lost to Aragon at the Pan American Games.

His body is stocky and strong, like a black rock on the seashore. He has a high ability to resist blows and an extremely tenacious willpower.

According to his information, he has never been knocked down in the past 44 games, and neither did Aragon that time.

 Because Link and ‘The Rock’ Peters are both boxing celebrities. On the day of the competition, more than 3,000 spectators came to the scene, filling the cultural and sports center to a full capacity. Among these people were ordinary citizens, hundreds of boxers who came to participate in the competition, and dozens of media reporters.

Everyone wants to see if KO madman Link can knock down Rock Peters within four rounds. They also want to see how long Rock Peters can last under Link's strong attack and whether he will fight back to kill Link. .

Even the "Miami Herald" published a review for this game. The review said that this was a contest between a hammer and an iron block. Whether the hammer breaks the iron block or the iron block breaks the hammer, the two men One more fight is needed.

However, the "Miami Herald" was also somewhat pessimistic about the outcome of the game, because Link said before the game that he wanted to win all his opponents by KO, which meant that he not only had to beat Peters, but also completely knock him out, that is, to defeat Peters. Si was knocked unconscious and could not get up for ten seconds.

But if you want to knock out a boxer like Peters, the success rate is extremely low.

Editor-in-chief Raphael Varane finally advised Link in the article, urging him to temporarily give up his plan to win the game by KOing his opponent, win by points first, get an Olympic spot, and with his strength, get a medal at the Olympics. Not difficult.

He also said that he is young, in the growth stage, and has great potential. Even if he encounters setbacks, don’t be discouraged. If you persevere, you will definitely achieve great success in boxing in the future.

Editor-in-chief Raphael Varane is like a psychiatrist. Before the game even starts, he provides psychological counseling to Link to prevent him from falling into despair after failure.

Even the local casino in Havana opened a game for the two of them. The odds of Link KO Peters winning were as high as 1:10. I heard that many people placed bets.

 Under this atmosphere, Link couldn't help but doubt himself a little. Can such a powerful opponent really get a KO from him?

When he walked into the boxing ring, his opponent "The Rock" Peters had already arrived. He was wearing blue protective gear and stood on the ring like an iron tower. He had a black head and a black face, and a dull expression.

Link looked at the opponent, he was indeed a formidable opponent.

This person is probably the biggest challenge I have encountered since my debut. It will definitely be difficult to defeat him, but if I can defeat him, it will be equivalent to completing a difficult challenge, and my mentality will become more difficult. Stronger, the game experience will be richer.

 It is like a process of superposition of mentality. The more wins, the stronger the mentality. A person with a strong mentality is truly strong.

 So no matter how difficult it is, we must defeat him.

 “Come on Link!”

Morales and the others shouted loudly.

"I will!"

Link raised his fist and waved.

 “Boxing!”

 After the game started, Link waved his fist and launched a tentative attack on his opponent.

 He wanted to use his fists to test his opponent's reaction ability, punch weight, and how well he defended himself.

 These boxing qualities cannot be seen through video tapes. You need to fight in person and compare them with yourself before you can make a judgment.

 After changing fists more than ten times, Link found that the opponent's reaction ability was average, about B+;

The punch weighed at least 900 pounds, which was heavier than the fists of Morales, Mario, and Rosnier. After being hit, the arm became numb, and the ribs were hit, and there was an urge to vomit blood.

Peters' arms are very strong. When he raises his arms to defend, Link's heavy punches can hardly break through his outer defense. The defense strength is at least A+, or S-.

Link couldn't help but feel worried.

In previous amateur competitions, since his opponents were not as powerful as him, he was used to using heavy punches to break away the opponent's defense, and then using jab + straight punch + swing punch to hit the opponent's head, causing the opponent to be knocked down or Completely knocked down.

Now you encounter a tough opponent and your heavy punches cannot break through the opponent's outer defense. How do you fight?

“If Link insists on KO, he will definitely lose.”

 In the audience, Aragorn said calmly.

Rosnier looked at the stands, "How did you defeat Peters last time?"

 “14:8!”

 “You only scored 14 points on him?”

Rosnier said in surprise that Aragon lost twice in his first two years, but he grew up very quickly. After the age of 22, he has never been defeated. Every time he plays against his opponent, he scores more than 20 points. 30 points is also very common, but last year in the Pan American Games against Peters, he only scored 14 points.

“Do you think Link will give up the KO?”

Savon asked as he looked at the two people on the ring.

Rosnier thought for a moment, "He is a smart man. If he cannot knock down his opponent, I think he will change his tactics."

Aragorn shook his head, "No, Link is a proud man. Changing tactics means failure. I think he would rather lose the game than change tactics."

 “You’re just like Link!”

Savon laughed and pointed the camera at the boxing ring, preparing to record the match and use it as a video tutorial.

 (End of this chapter)